Laurel City Council amends election laws

The Laurel City Council approved multiple changes to the city's elections laws at their meeting Monday, July 23. The changes will shift the boundaries of the city's two voting wards, alter the way votes are tallied and released and increases the number of campaign reports submitted by election candidates.

According to 2010 census data, there was a 42 percent to 58 percent population disparity between Ward 1 and Ward 2. The council took the advisory committee's recommendation, developed by the city's deputy director of community planning Jack Brock, which balances the wards and creates a minority majority ward in Ward 2.

The resolution moves the area south of Route 198, east of Van Dusen Road, north of Marton Street and west of Harrison Drive from Ward 2 into Ward 1.

The city will now release unofficial results on the Tuesday following the election. The official results, which include results from the paper-submitted early voting and absentee ballots, will be released on Wednesday evenings following Tuesday elections.

The new legislation requires candidates to submit three campaign disclosure reports: one 45 days before the election, one 15 days before the election and one by 5 p.m. the Thursday after the election. The current legislation requires only one campaign disclosure report be submitted 60 days after the election.

After 10 people were shot — seven of them in one incident — overnight in Baltimore following the city's most violent month in decades, police announced Sunday that 10 federal agents will embed with the city's homicide unit for the next two months.

Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis announced a reorganization of the department in an email to police Saturday night, formally promoting or moving 28 people into new roles and undoing some changes made by his predecessor Anthony W. Batts.

The Orioles had the opportunity to finish their weeklong homestand at Camden Yards by taking three of four from the Detroit Tigers, but as well as the Orioles have played at home, they’ve been a mediocre club there on Sundays.